Today I was in a training session all day and met a very nice colleague from Seattle, WA. We ended up going to lunch at a place called The Slanted Door, a Vietnamese restaurant in the Ferry Building at the Port of San Francisco. Here are some pics of the view from the restaurant:
This was our waitress:
This is the building itself:
The fog here is beautiful to watch and after class, I went and picked up some dinner from a deli across the street and came back and sat on the balcony. Below is a view of the Coit Tower with fog rolling in around it:
Tomorrow night I am doing the twilight tour of Alcatraz. I can't wait!!
So, I flew into San Francisco this morning and it is absolutely GORGEOUS here. My hotel faces the bay and I can see the Oakland Bay Bridge from my balcony. I ended up paying extra for the balcony bay view, but it is totally worth is as you can see from the pics below. I'll be in training classes all day tomorrow and Monday and then Tuesday is the User Group conference with breakout sessions, but Wednesday I should be able to do some sightseeing. I got tickets to tour Alcatraz Monday night and Fisherman's Wharf pass for Wednesday that includes the Bay Aquarium and a Bay Cruise tour.
Stay tuned for more updates :) I hope Snarks doesn't forget me while I'm gone :(
So, Sir Snarklepants is now gender neutral. When I picked him up, I expected him to be pretty lethargic, 'cause he ain't the most active cat. But much to my surprise, being unmanned seems to have given him more energy. Either that or it's a reaction to the anaesthesia. Either way, I've never seen him this energetic before:
Now I just have to work on getting him used to being indoors.
The time has come. Today is Sir Snarklepants' last day with his manhood fully intact. I drop him off tomorrow morning at 7:30 and when he comes home again, he will be snipped and chipped. A final video before the big day.
After a crazy 3 weeks, I'm back to a somewhat normal state. A lot has happened in those 3 weeks. A major project has gone live at work with much gnashing of the teeth. Still. And I went to Pittsburgh, PA for 4 days. Mom brought home a cat from a friend of hers who has been declawed named Morris. His previous home had 2 other cats that constantly tormented him, so we decided to bring him here. And he's settled in very well. I hope to have a pic up tomorrow for everyone to see. Beautiful cat and exceptionally friendly.
Also, I have some sad news. None of the kittens made it. Apparently Momcat stopped feeding them while I was in Pittsburgh and when I got back they were too far gone to save. But that's nature for you.
Sir Snarklepants on the other hand is coming along famously! Below are some pics I took this afternoon with that snazzy new camera that I still haven't learned to operate properly. But I did get a book on Amazon that was delivered today that should be very helpful.
I swear he knows just how to pose whenever he sees that camera come out.
This is Momcat. She is brought to you by the letter U
And I cemented my love for pooties, I mean cats with this awesome tattoo last night! It hurt like crazy, but I think it was well worth it:
So, that's where I've been for the last 3 weeks. And I'll be traveling to San Francisco for work in about 2 weeks. After that, I'm done with traveling for a while. I miss my babies too much when I'm away.
But I'm up against a very tight project deadline at work and to top it off, I've got a sinus infection that's sapping what little energy I have. I am starting to feel a bit better though, thanks for asking :)
I took these shots a couple of days ago. Sir Snarklepants is allowing me to pick him up now. I don't think he's entirely comfortable with it, but he doesn't squirm to get down and he also doesn't back away when I'm petting him. Video evidence is below. So no Daniel and Brian, it's NOT Catsploitation.
Ok, so maybe he jumps down, but he was there a looooong time before he jumped down
As for the other kitties, Momcat has moved them to the back patio. And now they are sleeping in the food dish.
The little black one follows me around every time I go outside now:
They all seem to be doing ok. I also bought a new camera and it looks very intimidating. Which is why the shots above were taken with my other camera. Look for the new camera pics this weekend.
Snarkle still runs from me and acts like he wants to be petted, but tries to get away from me whenever I do pet him. It's been a crazy week and I haven't spent as much time with him as I should, but I will rectify that this weekend. I have my doubts I'll ever get him to be an indoor cat with reactions like this:
I'll just have to keep at it I guess. Meanwhile in the front of the house, the kittens are getting more adventurous. This little guy followed Momcat all the way from under the front porch to the carport
And the others are venturing out when I put moist food out for the Momcat. And they are very tame. When you pick them up they just seem to go limp. I'll have to get some video of that soon. Quite amusing.
Also, all the rain we've been getting has really made the wildflowers bloom. Here's some shots I took with my soon to be spare camera the Canon Power Shot. I am upgrading to a Nikon Digital SLR, so be prepared for some crazy looking pics in the future as I get used to "real" photography as opposed to just "point and click"
I was too tired and it was taking too long for vids to upload last night to post any updates, but I'm working on them now and should have something up soon.
I'm just counting down the days until I can get Sir Snarklepants fixed. He likes to hang out underneath our neighbor's car and that's how his brother got hurt. But as soon as he's snipped, he'll be inside, and no Brian Neuticles will NOT be an option! So here's some vid of his majesty lazing around on a hot summer day. And his paws kill me. I don't know why, but I just love them. He's not real happy about being woke up:
I also got some shots of the other kittens. I've started leaving moist food out for them in the afternoon. They can smell is and gets them out from underneath the porch and it prompts Momcat to nurse them a little more.
Here's video of the black one and the one I call "Camera Hog" playing:
It won't be too long before they'll be venturing out without Momcat. Hopefully I can find homes for them all. Have a great evening everyone!!
One of nice southern hot hazy, late in the day induced storms that cool the weather down about 10 to 15 degrees. So, no new pics or vids today, but here are some "outtakes" that I haven't posted yet. I had to bring work home with me too, so it's cut into my kitten time. enjoy!
The always sleeping Sir Snarklepants:
And a few rare "action" shots. These are hard to come by!
I wonder how big he'll get? In some pictures it seems like he's all feet, which is fine with me. I love big kitties. It's fun watching him grow. Anybody know if paw size is an indication of how big they'll get?
More Snarklepants video as he slept on an end table on our patio. He looks slightly perturved as I wake him up:
Can you bielieve that a little less than 2 months ago, this little guy wouldn't let me near him, much less pet him. And look at him now. He's practically begging for scritches. Ok maybe begging is too strong a word, but look at how he exposes his neck for me. He'll be sleeping with me before long :)
The kittens seem to be healthy as well. They are now eating a the little of the fish food I put out for Momcat.
It was a short, but very hoy day today, playing with the kittens And the missing one finally showed up I don't if he's too big to get through the lattice, or hasn't hasn't figured it out yet.
The back and grey one show up too.
All in all it was too hot to much of anything, so I stared inside mosr of the day, Tomorrow is hopefully going to be a lot cooler
When I was growing up, I had 2 sets of the most wonderful, loving grandparents a child could have. And I was lucky enough to have then well into adulthood as well. Each set had large backyard gardens and were fond of shrubs and trees and flowers of every variety. I grew up on home grown vegetables and fruits and trust me, they are are much better than the produce at your local Food Lion, or maybe it was just the love :) But both had a peculiar habit that I didn't understand until just recently, of just taking a chair under a tree outside and just sitting. Occasionally talking, but mainly just observing. But it was until recently when I, myself, started growing a garden and landscaping that I knew why they did it.
They did it for the slow pace and peacefulness of nature and the calming effect it has on ones mind, soul, and body:
The satisfaction of knowing that something you planted actually grew and not just grew, but exploded. the second tree is one I planted 2 years ago and was a 12 inch long stick when I got it in the mail.
It's the appreciation of the the beautiful transformation of a tightly spiraled bud that will end up into a full blow color explosion in less than 24 hours
It's finding beauty in the tiniest of obscure things like lady bugs and bumble fees
The wildflowers that grow despite the lack/too much of water.
It's the fact that nature is powerful above all things and we simply can not contain it. It will always find a way.
I see now the wonder and peacefulness and joy just observing these this brings to you. I wish they were still alive so I could take my place beside them with my own chair underneath a shade tree and just "be".
For my Grandparents
PPS, you didn't think you were getting out of this post without a pootie video, now did you? You don't know me very well if you did :)
I was able to get vid and pics of the kittens underneath the porch, with much body contortion on my part. I've seen 4 of the 5 remaining and the one I didn't see was the mostly black one with bits of white. She has them in an awkward location, so it may have been there and I just didn't see it because it was so dark.
You can see the solid black one and the one I now call "camera hog" because every time I go out to take pics, he's the first one to greet me.
They seem eager to be out in the world exploring. This is good. They are not afraid of humans and this will make finding homes for them much easier:
Here's the gray one trying to get in on the action, but can't quite fit through the in the hole in the lattice work:
And this is a great shot of one of them amongst the sedums:
Oh, and as a side note, most of the video and pics I post have been taken with a Canon Power Shot SD850 Elph. For a point and ahoot camera I think I've been getting some amazing pics and vids. And I'm not getting paid to say that :) I will soon be upgrading to a more robust SLR where I'll have more control over lighting, exposure, etc, but so far this little camera has performed like a dream. Just wanted to give it some love :)
Sir Snarklepants continues to be skittish, but is now regularly eating out of my hand and allowing me to pet him. On his terms of course. Here's him eating tuna, or rather grabbing tuna out of my hand. And Sammi, the local stray getting in on the action, The back patio's a mess because every time it rains, it pushed yard debris on to it, so excuse the mess:
And here is the new toy I got him. He really seems to like it.
And Momcat McLovin moved her babies AGAIN! This time under the steps of the front porch. I was too tired after my craptacular week to crawl around on all 4s to get pics, but I'll be sure to post some tomorrow after a good night's sleep. They are already used to humans now and some in fact follow me outsdide, so there shouldn't be any adjustmnebt period once they are adopted. I'm almost tempted to take this little guy in too. Hr's so full of adventure and personality!
This little guy out of the whole bunch has absolutely stolen my heart and I can't keep him, so Annie, if you are looking for a companion for "Fuzzy" I think this is your little guy/girl. It even follows you around when you walk.
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